Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 03/01/2008, uploaded on 12/21/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Though composed four years apart, Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major is perhaps a fitting sequel to his popular “Classical” Symphony. Indeed, the concerto appears immediately after the symphony in the opus numberings of Prokofiev’s music. Yet, they are, in fact, more closely related than that. While Prokofiev mainly worked on the Third Piano Concerto while spending the summer in Brittany, sketches for the work appear as early as 1911. The concerto’s theme and variations second movement was composed in 1913, the lyrical opening theme in 1916 (the year Prokofiev began work on the “Classical” Symphony) and a choral subject in 1918. When, in 1921, Prokofiev assembled all the sketches he had made and set down to complete the concerto, he wrote in a letter that he lacked only the finale’s third theme and the first movement’s second. The finished product, like the First Symphony, was witty and lively, and it is no wonder that it too has since become a popular selection with audiences.

The Third Piano Concerto, however, did not immediately fare well with audiences. Its premiere in Chicago in December 1921, with Prokofiev as soloist, garnered no immediate attention. A performance in New York came fared little better. However, a performance in Paris the following year was warmly received, and the concerto has since become the most famous and oft-performed of Prokofiev’s five piano concerti.

Given its proximity to the “Classical” Symphony, it is also interesting that the Third Piano Concerto is the most Classical, or rather, is the only one to adopt the standard three-movement pattern of Classical and Romantic concerti. Lively and energetic outer movements frame an Andantino theme and variations, the work of 1913, and even the Allegro first movement opens with a slower Andante introduction featuring the sketched melody of 1916. Prokofiev’s writing for the piano is particularly virtuosic, which concludes with a dazzling and grandiose display in the work’s finale.        Joseph DuBose

1. Andante - Allegro
2. Tema con variazioni
3. Allegro, ma non troppo